After the Party- A Cobra Kai Short Story
by gerdylicious
Summary: After leaving her "friends" and the worst birthday party EVER behind her, Yasmine finds herself in need of a ride home. Will the drive home with an unexpected peer drive her crazy? Or will a new friendship be everything Yasmine never knew she needed? Based on the fanfiction idea by: Cobra Kai Kompanion Podcast


There were pebbles in her shoes. Not the kind of rocks that rolled out between your toes as you walked, but the gritty, tiny stones that dug into your heels with every step. She would have minded that feeling more, but her emotions were running wild.

Hot-faced and breathing sharply between steps, Yasmine looked toward the parking lot only yards away. Behind her, she could hear the vibrant sounds of teens talking above the din of music, enjoying the warm, spring night. She could still smell the rancid stench of hot dogs being cooked over bonfires surrounded by a mix of middle-class snobs and dirt bag, beer-drinking teens.

The line of parked cars was coming closer with every irritated step. Yasmine lifted her eyes to search for her peers. Her closer friends had either already left the party hours earlier or stuck around to hang with the losers that were throwing it. Much to her uncomfortable relief, she spotted two freshman piling into an old, banged-up sports car.

Silently, she argued with herself, wondering if it was worth asking. She needed to get a ride home. She definitely was not going to go crawling back to her friend Moon for help, she was probably still lip-locked with that blue-haired freak show back at the beach. Yasmine quickly decided that getting a ride home from a stranger would be better than returning to a beach party she wasn't popular in, even if it meant lowering her standards to hitch-hiking with a couple of no name kids.

"Hey," she called out to the freshmen. The two had already fastened their seatbelts, but the windows were rolled down enough that they had to have heard her. "Hey." She repeated, loudly enough that she was sure they couldn't ignore her.

The driver turned his head. He glanced at her through a veil of thin, blond hair.

 _Ugh, what am I doing?_ Yasmine thought. _Maybe it would be better to just walk home if this is what I'm left with._

"Hey," She said for a third time. She had walked right up to the car. Bending toward the window, she was close enough to get a smell of vanilla scented car freshener and old smoke. "Could I catch a ride with you guys?"

The driver looked at the passenger. They exchanged short words that Yasmine didn't pick up on.

"We're headed toward Reseda." The driver looked Yasmine up and down. "Which, if I'm not mistaken, isn't anywhere near your neighborhood."

Before she could protest, Yasmine watched as the driver shifted the car into reverse. The dented vehicle made good time, and smoothly dismissed itself from her reach. She took an idle step forward, into the empty spot the car had left behind.

 _Great. Now what?_

She attempted to keep her composure. She knew someone would drive her home. As if in response to her distress, another group, armed with picnic blankets and shallow cans of beer made their way up to the parking lot.

They also rejected her request.

Group after group kept trickling in during the spread of ten minutes. They all had some lame excuse.

"I don't live near you." One would say, or, "Oh, sorry, we're actually headed to another party." Or, "We don't have enough room."

Frustrated, Yasmine planted herself on a curb. She crossed her arms, irritated. Beginning to panic, she was almost sure she would have to go back to the party. Either she would have to act like nothing had happened, and that she hadn't been brutally humiliated, or she would have to further embarrass herself by asking someone for a ride home.

Inspiration suddenly hit, and she checked her phone to call an Uber. She didn't really like the idea of getting murdered, alone, and in the middle of nowhere, but maybe being stabbed to death by an inbred ax murderer would be better than facing the social scene she had stormed out of.

Lowering the brightness on her phone, her eyes honed in on the fact that she had no service. Swearing above the sounds of the party, she stood up and paced the short amount of sidewalk just next to the short trail that led to the party. She had to make a decision. One thing was clear, she would rather sleep on the curb all night than go back to the freak fest. But if she stood here long enough, people would eventually notice that she was standing alone, in a parking lot, like a loser.

New hope arrived, as a larger group of teens walked up the sandy path. She had a horrible feeling that this would be her last chance. She tried a new approach. She tried to sound upbeat and nice. Or at least, she thought she sounded upbeat and nice.

"Hey," she began. Yasmine approached the ragtag group, a smile on her face, her eyes appearing friendly. "Will you guys give me a ride home?" She asked. Some of the group stopped to address her, the other half, laughing and chatting, didn't seem to notice her.

"Oh, sorry." Their words sank into her stomach. "We're actually headed down the beach to go swimming."

"Seriously?" She found herself saying. "Do you know if anyone else is leaving?" Yasmine spouted out words, desperately trying to grip their attention. "Is there any way you could maybe drop me off by a bus station or something?"

Two more people walked by.

"Could you guys give me a ride?" Yasmine called out to them. She saw another straggler whisk past her, "Hey, could I get a ride with you?"

All the parties either ignored her or quickly told her off. They got into their respective vehicles. She even swore she heard a group laughing at her.

Deflated and overwhelmed, she called into the empty lot. "Is there _anyone_ out there who will give me a ride?"

Out of the darkness, a voice behind her replied. "I'll give you a ride."

Yasmine's heart began to pound.

 _No, no no. Anyone but him._

If it was the person she thought that voice belonged to than she would almost rather die. Turning on her heal to face him, she closed her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes and repeated the thought.

 _Almost,_ rather die.

Demetri, the nerdy, reclusive, geek from her class was holding up his keys like a complete weirdo, as if to repeat that he would drive her.

"I can take you home." His timidity shined like cheap highlighter on acne. "Your house is pretty much on my way."

Much to Yasmine's fright, she knew for a fact that this was not true. But admittedly, it wasn't the worst response to her cry for help. He, after all, was the first real taker to offer any assistance.

Her eyes drifted back toward the beach. Sure enough, she could see her ex-friend Moon going at it with the mowhawk-ed freak. Did she even care that Yasmine was suffering this humiliation? Moon had practically disowned her in front of the entire school only minutes ago. Yasmine was reminded of the pain she would be feeling from that major wedgie she had received before exiting the scene. She rubbed her lower hip to ease the sudden, bruising sting. And after all that, the creepy kid was offering to take her home.

 _Could this day get any more hellish?_

Demetri took a step toward her. In response Yasmine took an instinctive step back.

"I'll drive you," He said again, "Unless of course you have a problem with driving in an old car." He made the disclaimer. "Not that you own a fancy car, well you probably do, but-" Demetri stumbled for the words. Yasmine was wondering where the nearest gun was. "That is," he unfortunately chose to continue. "You probably won't like the crunchy seats in my mom's van." He didn't make eye-contact. "They smell like old, rotting vegetables."

He finally shut up. Apparently, he was done talking for a split second. Long enough for Yasmine to make the insane decision to take him up on his offer, which she immediately knew she would regret.

Demetri wasn't lying about the rotting vegetable smell. Something in the van reeked, but Yasmine couldn't quite put her finger on what it reminded her of. The seats were clean enough, though. She planted herself in the passenger seat and watched Demetri sit down behind the wheel out of the corner of her eye. She shifted her body towards the door and placed her head against the window. Yasmine only hoped that the ride would be short and simple.

Turning the keys in the ignition, Demetri's car gave off a horrifying screeching sound. The kind that caused you to question if the engine would make it to the nearest gas station.

"You should probably fasten your seatbelt." He offered. "I didn't drink anything tonight, but I wouldn't bet that other people on the road haven't."

Irritated, Yasmine yanked the stiff belt over her shoulder and clicked it into place. She lifted her sandaled feet onto the edge of the dashboard. Suddenly realizing how tired she was, she tried to close her eyes and relax. The van rolled out of the lot sounding like a cat that had been stepped on.

Yasmine glanced back towards the beach praying no one was watching her leave in this mystery machine. She breathed a silent sigh of relief seeing that the party was in full swing and no one seemed to be noticing their departure.

 _Oh, thank god._

The ride was quiet for the first few minutes. The time was long enough for Yasmine to reflect on the events of the day. Everything had started out so promising. But thanks to those karate freaks and her so called, "friends", as usual, things were ruined. And now, here she was, strapped into the front of a whack job's minivan grateful to be leaving it all behind.

But something pinched her gut as she recalled that it wasn't over. She would have to face them all on Monday. Yasmine's face went warm and her skin felt cold as hot tears began to flood her eyes and find their way down her cheeks. What was she supposed to do now? She knew phones had recorded the whole ordeal, and there was no way people were going to let the events of the night go unnoticed.

Breaking the silence, Demetri cleared his throat. Yasmine couldn't turn to face him. She knew that she wouldn't stop crying any time soon. There was no way she was going to face anymore unnecessary humiliation. Instead, she leaned closer to the door and planted her shoulder on the frame of the car.

"So," Demetri began slowly. "How's your day been so far?"

Yasmine felt a new stream of tears flood to her eyes.

 _Get a clue._

"I mean," Demetri began to backtrack. Turning the van blinker on. The vehicle turned to the right. "Sure, it wasn't the best party. I didn't even enjoy it myself. Me, I find entertainment in a good book or documentary special. Have you ever seen the one about how they make fish crackers?" He straightened the wheel and mumbled. "Fascinating."

Demetri sighed dramatically and began tapping his fingers against the steering wheel as if to pass the time.

"Anyway," he unfortunately continued. "Uh, happy birthday." His voice suddenly became unnaturally upbeat. "I suppose I already said it, but I'll say it again." Yasmine sensed him turn his face toward her. "Did you get any cool presents? Last years I got a limited-edition Dark Knight comic from my parents. Unfortunately, I spilled grape juice on it a couple months ago, so now it's pretty much worthless-"

"Look." Yasmine interrupted, turning to face him. She sat up, her face still crisp and moist from crying. Her eyelids felt heavy and her skin was crawling. "I'm not trying to be rude," she was. "But could we just, like, not talk? I'm really tired."

Demetri waved his hand casually, excusing her remarks. "That's totally fine." He pursed his lips and nodded. "It's your day. You just say the word."

 _Don't remind me._ Yasmine turned back toward the window. Her birthday had gone completely unnoticed, and people's failed attempts at making her feel special had been a total waste of time.

The air became stiff and quiet after that. Minutes passed before another sound could be heard. Sirens wailed in the distance, the occasional car's headlights streamed through the windows and vanished into the night.

"I'm sorry." Demetri broke the silence.

 _God, now what?_

"I actually don't know where your house is." He continued. "I mean, I know it's in this area but."

"Oh, yeah." Yasmine sat up, removing her feet from the dashboard. She quickly wiped her face with the back of her sleeve and blinked her eyes to focus on her dark surroundings. "You'll want to take a right at this next light. The third neighborhood on the left will be the next turn."

Demetri nodded. "Good deal."

He lifted his hand to a dial on the dashboard. "Want to listen to music?"

"No."

"Okay." He lowered his hand.

Silence.

The van approached the light and came to a stop. There was no traffic, they were the only people sitting at the light, and yet it was still red. Demetri shifted awkwardly in his seat, something that made her feel he wasn't really going to shut up any time soon.

Turning the vehicle down a dark street, Demetri continued talking about things Yasmine didn't care about. Comic books, nerdy movies, school. He mentioned a few things about the Karate dojo, she really tried to tune out during that part of the conversation. He made a few remarks about the party, only reminding her of how horrible she was feeling about the whole ordeal.

"Seriously," Yasmine mumbled, "I really don't want to talk."

Demetri probably would have rebutted, but it was then that Yasmine directed him to turn left down a long, wide road with large homes on each side. They were the kind of three-storied houses that had long driveways and elaborately gardened shrubs.

"Woah." Demetri mumbled. "I suppose there are clichés for a reason." He whistled again, this time in awe of the sights around him. "The electric bills alone…" He trailed off.

"I'm just up here to the right." Yasmine sat up in her seat and gathered herself.

Unbuckling prematurely, she was prepared to get out of this minivan hellhole. She reached for a bag, but then remembered that she had packed very lightly. She took satisfaction in the thought that soon, she would be taking off her sand-covered clothes and be done with the day.

However, just as quickly as the last thought had ended, the same, horrible things slipped into her mind. How could she go back into school on Monday? And, there was the even more immediate, terrifying anxiety, how would she go inside? Her mom would probably have left some sort of card. The woman would have been in bed and sleeping with a couple of pills behind her by this time.

"2 am." Demetri remarked. He nodded, and his lips made a thin, accomplished smile.

Yasmine huffed, opening the door as the car halted to a screeching stop. "What, you've never stayed out so late?"

Demetri nodded. "That, and I've never talked to someone for this long."

 _It's literally been twenty minutes, but whatever._

"Well, anyway, thanks for the ride." Yasmine said curtly, she could feel the tears coming on again. All the events of the night came flooding back to her like a pool in her chest. She had a difficult time believing she would ever forget the laughter and words that followed her as she stormed away from the beach.

"It's been a pleasure." Demetri responded. His voice took on a regal-tone, as if he were pretending to be a character from Shakespeare or some other old movie Yasmine had ignored during history classes. "Farewell milady."

"Whatever." Yasmine mumbled.

Yasmine didn't linger to say final goodbyes or make any small talk. She trudged forward, her sandals flapping against her heals briskly as she bolted for the front door. She shuffled the inside of her left short's pocket probing for her house key. Behind her, she could still hear Demetri's van rumbling and screeching by the side of the road.

Once she reached the tall, clean double-doors of her house, Yasmine made a half turn to look back while simultaneously lodging the key into the doorknob. Demetri was still sitting in the drive with the passenger window rolled down.

Over the noise of the engine he moved his mouth, saying something Yasmine couldn't make out.

 _Ugh, what now?_

"What?" She screeched into the night. The key successfully opened the door. Yasmine took a step forward into her house. "Hey, you don't have to wait." She said signaling that she had made it inside.

"Only after you close the door." Demetri called back. "I don't want any freaks to intercept you."

 _Too late._

Shutting and locking the door behind her, Yasmine scrambled to flip on the kitchen light switch. Her eyes brought on a new, silent, steady stream of tears. The smell of rosy scented candles filled her lungs. The clock on the wall gave an unnerving chime as the hour was officially announced. Headed toward the sink to get a glass of water, Yasmine immediately noticed a package on the table, wrapped in crisp, white paper with a small pink bow.

"Mom." She whispered.

Opening the small, formally written, typed note that adorned the gift, Yasmine grumbled.

"How thoughtful."

She didn't bother to open the gift. She knew it would be another master card to the mall, a set of keys to a small boat or maybe a convertible or something. She didn't really care. She was too tired to have a slightly happy moment. All she really wanted was to forget that the day had ever happened and go to bed.

As she was about to shut off the kitchen light to make her way upstairs, a brief knock wrapped on the front door. Yasmine's stomach churned. She knew it had to be him. Something about the annoying sound of the hand hitting the door felt like it had to be him.

Begrudgingly, she passed through the kitchen to look through the small windows around the door frame. Sure enough, there he was. Demetri was hovering awkwardly on the top step, swaying back and forth. The cool night air tussled his hair. He crossed his arms.

 _He must be cold._ Yasmine thought in satisfaction. She allowed the moment to linger a bit longer. Anything to make him feel a sliver of the agony she had gone through that night.

Finally, she opened the door, only just enough to see him and not let in the evening air.

"What?" She demanded, the hot tears were gripping her face. She didn't even care if he saw her anymore. Everyone else saw her suffer humiliation, a few tears would be nothing.

Demetri, about to say something, paused. He blinked a few times and lifted his finger to point at her face. "Are… are you okay?"

With the back of her sleeve, Yasmine smeared the tears to the sides of her face. "Fine." She retorted. "What do you want?"

"Uh," He pulled something small from his pocket. "You left your cell-phone in my van." He handed it to her. Their fingers brushed. Yasmine's spine rippled uncomfortably like water in a pond. "I'll admit I considered not giving it back, but then I thought, nah it's her birthday. Better do the right thing."

"Thanks." Yasmine said curtly. She was going to close the door, but something stopped her. She decided it was only right to tell him that it was decent of him to do that and to drive her home and even to talk to her, but the words didn't come. The best she could do was lift her eyes from the concrete slab to look at his ratted shoes.

"That's alright." Demetri nodded. "Good night." He turned and walked toward his van. "Listen, Yasmine." His voice was shaky, but serious. He stopped to face her again.

She found herself turning her head to look him in the eye, something she had tried to avoid all evening. She realized that his eyes were a light, piercing blue, and she found herself admit that they looked nice, even friendly.

Demetri continued. "I know you've had a pretty sucky evening." He said. "What happened back there, although amusing on a basic level, wasn't cool. And," he tapped his foot on the sidewalk awkwardly. "I'm sorry it even happened."

He shuffled his car keys in his hand uneasily. He seemed to be thinking that the conversation was over, and, in all likelihood, it would have been. But something in her told her that Yasmine should probably say something, although a simple, "Yeah", or, "Thank you", didn't seem to fit the bill.

Before she could respond Demetri continued. "Okay, I feel it needs to be said. Your friends are jerks." He continued. His voice became more confident with every syllable. "And if they didn't stick around to defend you tonight than you should probably think about getting new ones."

Yasmine looked out into the night. Her neighborhood was quiet and peaceful, wrapping her in the silence the moment had taken on. Oddly enough, he was probably right. But there wasn't anyone left in the world who would talk to her. Anyone, except Demetri, and frankly, any idiot could see he was not her cup of tea.

"As I see it," he went on. "Some of us don't have a choice. People like me, quite honestly, don't get to choose who we hang out with. We sort of grow together like fungus, or something. But you, you can choose anyone you want."

Yasmine stared at him through the side of her eyes. She wasn't going to look at him again. She wasn't sure why, but what Demetri said made sense to her. At that moment though, all she could really think about was how ticked off she was at the world.

 _Why of all people did I have to drive with him?_ She breathed through her nose sharply. Closing her eyes, she took a deep, cleansing breath.

"Anyway," Demetri whistled. Dramatically, he grunted as he shifted on his feet. "That's it. I just felt it needed to be said."

Yasmine was done. She didn't know how much more of this nerdy advice she could take. But she knew that deep down it would be overly weird to not say something. It wouldn't make sense to not have the final word. After all, what kind of geek thought he could give advice to her, of all people?

"Thanks," she sniffed, her eyes were still wet from crying. Yasmine suddenly realized her nose was hot and was dripping slightly. "But I think I'm good. It's just been an off night, that's all."

"Whatever you say." Demetri responded.

Before turning to go back inside, she allowed her gaze to meet his one final time. To her surprise it wasn't as hard as she thought it would be. It was then that she knew there was something about this weird kid that didn't really make sense to her. Something in his look silently told her that somehow, he understood what she wanted to say. It was a feeling she had never felt with any of her friends. Not with Moon, not with Kyler, not with anyone.

"Anyway, have a goodnight." Demetri lifted his hand to wave before heading back to his van.

"Good night." Yasmine quietly replied.

Finally crawling into bed, Yasmine was exhausted. Her room radiated that stiff perfume her mom had bought her for Christmas. The air was quiet, except for the distant sound of the neighbor's little dog barking. The moon slipped through the window shades and speckled across the comforter of her bed. She lifted the sheets higher around her shoulders and under her chin, as her whole body slipped into a peaceful rhythm of sleep.

She had planned on having a decent cry, but for reasons she couldn't peg down, she couldn't even think about the incidents of the party anymore. And oddly enough, although she couldn't explain it, the events at the beach suddenly didn't even feel like they really mattered.

As she drifted into sleep, she only recalled a few things. There was a warm, comfortable feeling she was unfamiliar with. Unconsciously her lips turned into a flicker of a smile thinking of that weird guy who was cool enough to offer her a ride when no one else did. He had told her things about her friends that she was never honest enough to admit to herself.

And right before the night took hold, she saw those pleasant, blue eyes, and something inside her told her that she would be okay going back to school on Monday, even if the whole world was against her.


End file.
